04 August, 2013

Why Yahoo needs to switch back to Classic Mail - Pronto

In this changing world of upgrades, upscaling, choice, moving forward and early-adopting, you would think it might be counter-intuitive to go "backwards" when it comes to email platforms.

In the case of Yahoo mail, the exception to the rule of upgrading is plain for all to see.

As a Yahoo mail user, you may have noticed the following points when trying to use the "New, Improved Yahoo Mail Interface":

1. It's buggy. That is a general comment. Let's be more specific - it refreshes unnecessarily and hangs for too long when trying to do simple things like "Open Email".

2. It hates Opera. No kidding, it really does. There are quite a few of us out there who like to use the small footprint, unobtrusive nifty little browser called Opera. Yahoo appears to have declared war on this little browser and has ensured that nothing in the new Yahoo Mail has a chance of working properly in Opera.

3. If someone hacks into your account, or if your password suddenly doesn't work, good luck retrieving it. Yahoo Mail shows a captcha, refreshes and then gives you another captcha to get your password. Then it refreshes and gives you another captcha. The cycle continues until someone dies.

4. It doesn't just hate Opera. It also hates Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. If I try out some new obscure browsers, I'll let you know how badly Yahoo mail handles them as well.

5. You cannot switch back to Yahoo Classic Mail. There was a fix I used to switch it back to Yahoo Classic but after a certain date, you are forced to use the new interface.

6. Mail users have no choice in the matter. You now use the new interface whether you like it or not. No matter how much it sucks.

7. The sad thing is that Classic Mail worked. It worked perfectly for so many people. Here are some interesting Tweets on the subject:

Seriously considered ditching Yahoo Mail, but I've been using it since the 90s and it would be such a hassle w/o mail forwarding.
— Black Pete (@EtepKcalb) July 9, 2013

My Yahoo Mail just switched over to a new look and I HATE It. Why are these sites always changing things that work perfectly well?
— Jess (@dazzle715) July 9, 2013

@marissamayer Why are you trying to drive long time users of the site away from it with this brutally awful new yahoo mail interface?
— David Dalka (@dalka) July 9, 2013

Dear @yahoomail, why are you forcing us old-timers out of Yahoo Mail classic? Now I have to put up with this ugly new interface. >:(
— James Habitan (@jlhabitan) July 9, 2013

I feel like i am in one of those 30 year loveless marriages with Yahoo Mail. Been together too long to quit, despite all the crap.
— Amreekan Desi (@amreekandesi) July 8, 2013

Even in the face of daily criticism such as this, Yahoo ignores the voice of its users.

This is the first step to losing people to new webmail programs.
In the case of hacking, it has been suggested in some circles that the Yahoo password database has been compromised. This has not been confirmed or disproved so I'm going to say it was "allegedly" compromised. Don't sue me.
This would theoretically mean that it doesn't matter how complex or clever your password is, if the hacker has the password in front of them, it doesn't matter if your password is 1234567 or g$_2FG*SFBH#%^@1~~, they've got it and they'll use it to send spammy emails from your address and delete all your contacts. What fun.

Yahoo Mail also has the annoying habit of trolling your emails and showing weirdo ads that you wouldn't dream of clicking. For some reason, Yahoo thinks I want to "hook up" with creepy dating sites. It's never going to happen.
It is possible that Yahoo is trying to promote their $19.95/year "No Ads" version of Yahoo but that seems like a bizarre strategy if this is the case.

On a final note, there has been a blessed addition to the Yahoo "Classic Mail" saga.

Click the "gear" icon (you will find it in the top right corner of your Yahoo Mail '
Interface')->

Select "mail options"
-> "switch to basic"

You will now sent be back to a slightly more functional version of Yahoo Mail.